Virtual World
by music-mermaid007
Summary: Virtual World. Round 2. But with a twist... Seto Kaiba finds himself trapped inside a virtual world with an unwanted companion. How did they become trapped in this strange world? Who trapped them there? Can they overcome their differences to escape the Virtual World? My first story on here, hope you enjoy it!
1. Introduction

Seto Kaiba lifted his sleeve for the sixth time, and frowned at his watch. It was 19.01. His already ice cold eyes narrowed and grew even cooler. His limousine was precisely six minutes late. Kaiba was not used to this; he was never late. Ever. What irked him even more about his tardiness was that he had promised his little brother Mokuba that he would spend the evening at home, with him. He had promised to be home by 19.00. And it was past that. Seto Kaiba really did not like to disappoint his brother. His eyebrows furrowed together. _What could be taking them so long? All they had to do was to send the limousine down from the mansion – a mere mile - collect me and then finish. It isn't exactly a difficult task. Well obviously it is for some people._ He thought. His emotionless exterior portrayed no emotion, yet inside something was telling him that something was wrong. His limousines were almost always early, and when they weren't they were on time; but never, ever late.

He glanced down the dark streets. There wasn't any sign of the limousine. He was tempted to call one of his employees and hostilely tell them that if the limousine wasn't there soon there would be jobs and necks on the line. Kaiba was not only a fiercely protective older brother; he was also a no-nonsense successful businessman.

It was now 19.03. Kaiba tensed up before removing his cell phone from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and flipping it open. Before he could speed dial his office however, bright lights appeared in front of him and a sparkling new limousine appeared before him. The door slid open of its own accord, revealing a dark exterior.

Kaiba's eyebrows knitted together and he hesitated. This limousine was definitely new. He had never seen it before. Yet here it was in front of him, doors open, exactly as his limousine would have done.

"Seto! Come on, let's go!"

"Mokuba?" Seto said, his slight hesitation creeping into his voice; his little brother didn't usually pick him up from meetings.

As if he had read Seto's mind, Mokuba's voice drifted out of the back of the car. "I was bored waiting, and Roland found this really cool new limousine that he thought you might like."

This answered several of the questions in Kaiba's mind, although something inside him told him that everything still didn't quite add up. However, against his better judgement he entered the limousine, the door closing swiftly behind him, cutting off the lights from the street. It was only then Kaiba realised that Mokuba wasn't in the car. He was alone. With that dawn of realisation, he became sleepy and blacked out.

* * *

"You guys, why can't we just choose a direction and start walking instead of dawdling here. Really, it doesn't matter which way we go!" Tea Gardener's exasperated voice rang out through the night. Two of her best friends were having an argument about the quicker way to get back to Domino City Park. They had spent about ten minutes arguing, in which time they probably could have got there already. Instead, they were arguing outside the restaurant they had just been to.

"Yeah well Tristan, ya wrong, okay, let's just go that way." Joey Wheeler, a Brooklyn blonde boy said, shoving his thumb over his shoulder away from the direction his friend Tristan Taylor was pointing.

"No dude, I am not giving in this time! Serenity, you want to go this way with me don't you?" He said giving her the puppy dog eyes.

Serenity, Joey's sister, faltered. "Well, I..."

"Leave my sister out of this, Taylor!"

"Yeah, leave Serenity out of it Tristan!" A black haired teenager, with dice earrings agreed, sidling closer to Serenity.

"I'm warning you Duke, don't push it!" Joey replied, almost shouting now, his face reddening with anger.

Tea, Mai, Yugi and Rebecca all sighed. However, before a fight could erupt between the boys, a pair of bright lights appeared in front of them, and an extremely long and extremely new limousine parked by the sidewalk where they were waiting. The door slid open automatically and a voice they recognised emanated from the inside.

"Get in losers."

"Wha-" almost everyone in the group in front of the limousine said in unison.

"Come on guys, this is important. Seto and I need to talk to all of you. But we don't have much time. Come quickly!" The voice of Mokuba added to the speech of his older brother.

They all looked at each other before setting foot in the limousine trepidaciously. Everyone piled into the car, sitting as far away from where they thought Kaiba was to begin with, but the person who entered last had to sit near the far end. That unlucky person was Tea.

As she clambered over the others to the other side of the limousine, the door slammed shut and locked. That was also when Tea realised that they were the only people in the car; there was no one at the farther end and no sign of the Kaiba brothers.

"Wait a min-" she began, but was interrupted as she was overcome with the same sleepiness as Kaiba had been earlier, and she and all of her friends fell into darkness.


	2. Chapter 1

Seto Kaiba opened his eyes slowly and found himself in a dark room. He sat up and got to his feet quickly, remembering what had happened to him. He observed the room coldly. As his eyes adjusted to the light he could see that he was in what looked to be a huge black empty space. He could not see the walls, nor the ceiling. Everything was black. "Where the hell am I?" He thought out loud.

"Welcome Seto Kaiba." A woman's voice resonated around the room. Kaiba looked around for the source of the voice but there was no one there other than himself. The voice echoed eerily in the huge space. Kaiba gritted his teeth.

"Who's there?" he snarled, "Where am I?"

"You are in the virtual world. Please choose a companion." A monitor rose from the floor and it blinked into life, illuminating the room harshly. Even with the light Kaiba still could not see the edges of the room. He looked more closely at what was on the screen. He saw several different thumbnails with pictures of some of the people he knew from Duelist Kingdom and the Battle City Tournament.

 _What the...?_ "Who are you? And what is this place?"

The computer repeated his previous instruction. "Damn computers." Kaiba muttered under his breath. He wasn't going to get anywhere if he didn't follow the computer's instruction. He took a step forward towards the computer. After surveying the list briefly he looked to the ceiling and snorted. "You want me to choose to spend time with one of these nerds? You've got to be joking."

In the same voice, the computer once again repeated its last instruction.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He scrolled through the faces once again, this time looking at them more closely. He spotted Mokuba's face on the second page and paused, his finger hovering above the screen. But he hesitated before pressing the button. It was obvious that he was trapped somewhere. Either he was in a virtual world, as the computer had told him or he was elsewhere. Either way he was definitely in danger and had a feeling this was only the start of what was to come. If he really was in a virtual world then his body must be plugged into a machine somewhere else. And that would mean Mokuba would also be around there. However, Kaiba's experience with virtual worlds had been that it was safer to be captured and in a cell than being in the world with him. God knows, the virtual world could be programmed to hurt your body. At least Mokuba would have control of himself to some extent and saved from this danger if he was left with his captors. _No, I'll choose someone else._ He huffed and scrolled back to the beginning.

 _'The mutt. No way, he wouldn't have the brains. Yugi's cheerleader, Gardener. No, she doesn't seem to do anything for those nerds apart from annoy me. Taylor. No. Dice-guy. No.'_ He quickly flicked through the other candidates before returning to the one person he thought could help. _'Yugi.'_ Kaiba gritted his teeth. He hated having help. He didn't want to have to choose anyone, but this was the best chance he had to save his company and his brother. His finger hovered over the thumbnail of Yugi's face before bringing it down to press it.

Before he could make contact with the screen however, the entire screen went blank.

"Time is up. Random selection being made." The computer's voice announced.

"What the hell?" Kaiba shouted at the voice, "I was just about to choose."

"Selecting random companion." The computer's voice said. _'Damn computer.'_ Kaiba thought. A thumbnail then appeared on the screen. "Companion selected."

Kaiba's face dropped, his eyes turning colder than ice. "Tea Gardener selected. Please wait."

 _'The cheerleader. I have to spend time with Gardener the cheerleader. Oh great. Wonderful. Perfect.'_

Kaiba then realised the computer was standing in front of him. _'I could hack my way out of this surely...'_ he approached the computer slowly and fingered around the front, looking for a way to remove the panelling. However, as soon as he found a small opening he felt a jolt of electricity run through him. He was pushed back several metres from the lightning bolt that had struck him. He slowly began to lose consciousness, the darkness in the room fully consuming him.

* * *

"Kaiba. Kaiba. KAIBA." A female voice said, the volume and pitch of her voice rising with every repetition.

Seto Kaiba groaned and rolled away from the voice. It really wasn't the voice he had hoped to hear. He had hoped to have returned to his bedroom; that this whole escapade was just a nightmare brought upon by work-related sleep-deprivation. Once he was facing away from the girl he opened his eyes. No longer was he in the dark room; he was lying in an open field. Green grass surrounded him. He sat up quickly and looked around. Apart from a smattering of trees, he could see nothing. Noone else was here apart from himself and... her. Thinking of Gardener he shot a sideways glance in her direction, making sure he was discreet. He didn't want her thinking that he cared. Which he most certainly did not. He was merely interested in seeing how she had reacted to their predicament.

His first thought was that she looked confused. _'Well who wouldn't be?'_ He thought to himself. She was sitting down, her arm outstretched from where she had been shaking him. _'Had she been trying to wake me for long? And anyway how did I-? Oh yeah, virtual world.'_ Kaiba stood up and looked around before striding away from Tea, leaving her on her own.

"KAIBA" Tea Gardener repeated for the third time, shaking the unconscious figure of her acquaintance. He groaned and rolled to face away from her. She sighed. At least he was awake now, even if he wasn't talking to her. She looked around her surroundings again, going through the most recent events for about the fifth time. She remembered she had been spending the day with Yugi and her other friends and Kaiba's limo had showed up. She remembered climbing through the door... but no matter how hard she tried she could not remember past that point.

She looked at where the CEO had been a minute earlier but he had disappeared. She looked around and noticed he was striding away from her at quite some speed. She gritted her teeth. It had been his limousine and his voice that had made her and her friends go into the limo. It was his fault she was in

"KAIBA!" She shouted once again and began to run after his disappearing figure.

* * *

Kaiba had advanced quite a distance before he heard Tea shout his name. He rolled his eyes and continued walking. If she wanted to speak to him, she could walk at his pace; he wasn't going to wait for her.

"KAIBA, SLOW DOWN!" _'Argh! I knew this would happen.'_ Kaiba said grinding his teeth before slowing down to a halt. He didn't watch her as she approach, nor did he lay eyes on her when she began to speak to him.

"What- No where are we?" Tea asked her cheeks flushed from the running she had done to catch up with him. She glared at him when he didn't reply. "Well? Are you going to answer me?"

Kaiba took a deep breath, calming himself. He was so prepared to snap back at the impatient girl in front of him. Who did she think she was? He was Seto Kaiba, CEO of KaibaCorp and she was being utterly rude. _'Figures. The mutt rubbed off on her. Always knew he was a bad influence.'_ He eyed her cautiously.

"Well Gardener, unlucky for you, we are both stuck in a virtual world. So I suggest you-"

"AGAIN?" Tea interrupted incredulity in her voice. "This has already happened once! Where is everyone else?" She mused looking around; there was no sign of life apart from her and Kaiba and the grass they stepped on. True it felt real, but so had the other virtual world. She turned back to Kaiba who she could see was tense. "Who's behind it this time Kaiba? Is it the Big 5? Or Noah? No it can't be Noah, he didn't escape from..." She trailed off, remembering her company. "Are we in danger?"

"SHUT UP!" Kaiba roared. His irritation and frustration at the girl in front of her had grown and grown over her little speech and he could not take any more questions. He ignored the obvious anger of the girl in front of him, the tell-tale sign being the reddening of her face. "I don't know where the rest of the nerd-patrol is. I don't know who is behind this. And of course we are in danger you silly girl. I just want to find out how to leave this place, find Mokuba then discover who is behind this and make them pay..." Kaiba lowered his voice as he trailed off in his sentence, forgetting the girl in front of him. He had almost growled out the last few words. He suddenly remembered why he was speaking and looked up at the girl in front of him, giving her his signature icy stare. He noticed that she had taken a few steps back from him. This time he directed his speech to her. "And it would help if I didn't have some girl following me and asking me dumb questions!"

* * *

"SHUT UP!" Tea stopped mid-way through her next sentence and stared disbelieving at the boy in front of her. Had he just...? Her face reddened in anger. "I don't know where the rest of the nerd-patrol are. I don't know who is behind this. And of course we are in danger you silly girl. I just want to find out how to leave this place, find Mokuba then discover who is behind this and make them pay..." All through this sudden outburst of Kaiba's Tea had been growing angrier and angrier. However, his last sentence had done something very different to her. Kaiba had actually managed to scare her. She felt herself stepping away from him; whether it was his ice-cold eyes or the menacing tone that filled his voice as he trailed off, she subconsciously took a few discrete steps away from him. It had almost been like he forgot she was there, but then a spark of recognition filled his face and he turned to her, his eyes ice-cold once again. "And it would help if I didn't have some girl following me and asking me dumb questions!"

Tea looked as though she wanted to make a retort but bit her tongue. She knew what Kaiba could be like and being on his bad side when she didn't know where she was or how she got there, or whether anyone else was there, was a really bad idea.

* * *

Meanwhile Kaiba had turned away from her. He was breathing slightly more heavily after his outburst. In truth, he hadn't meant to be so harsh. The recent events had lead to a ball of stress building in him and it was easy to let out his anger on the annoying girl that hung around with his arch-rival.

He continued to walk away, slower now, to give Tea a chance to keep up. She did not see this as a kind action; as far as she was concerned he was walking off without her again. She hurried to catch up, not wanting to be left alone in a place like this; however she stayed slightly away from Kaiba, walking with her thoughts as company.

 _'What am I going to do?'_ she thought, _'I'm stuck with Kaiba. He doesn't seem to know what's going on either. Where's everyone else?'_ Tea didn't enjoy being alone. Nor did she enjoy being in the company of Seto Kaiba. _'Where's Yami?'_ She wondered as she trailed even further behind Kaiba. _'I hope he and the others are okay, not hurt.'_ The thought of someone hurting her friends was horrifying to the brunette; the one thing Tea Gardner held above anything was friendship and the associated behaviours with it; kindness, generosity, trust and compassion. If anyone laid a finger on any of her friends she would be angry. Her thoughts turned back to Kaiba. _'Looks like he's lost Mokuba too. So maybe I'm not quite alone in this situation. If he would just talk to me perhaps this would get better.'_

She hurried closer to Kaiba, beginning to walk beside him. Kaiba was surprised at this but continued walking despite this.

"Kaiba, we really need to talk about this."

"What is there to say?" Kaiba snapped. "We are stuck in a virtual world. I had to pick someone out of the nerds I met at the tournaments to 'help'," he added the inverted commas with his fingers "Me find Mokuba and escape. I don't know who sent me here, but I do know that they want me out of the picture. Permanently. And by whatever means necessary. Is that enough talking?" He huffed and continued to walk.

Tea was taken aback at Kaiba's second outburst. She had expected Kaiba to put up more of a fight to get him to talk. But he had just involuntarily given her all the information he knew. In fact, in the few short, angry words they had exchanged, she didn't think she and Kaiba had ever had a conversation half that length. She smiled a small smirk. She was getting somewhere. Maybe by being here with Kaiba she could try to get to know him. Try to pull him out of his shell, maybe even find out why he hated her and her friends so much.

 _'I had to pick someone out of the nerds I met at the tournaments to 'help'_ Kaiba's words hit her. He had picked her? She felt a warm sensation flood through her and colour rose in her cheeks.

Kaiba looked at her and snorted, mumbling something very much like "Don't flatter yourself." Tea's blush quickly changed to blotchy anger but then the world around the pair grew blurry. The green of the grass seemed to meld with the blue sky and everything changed. Tea gasped in fright and grasped onto Kaiba's arm, not thinking what she was doing.

Kaiba's eyebrows knitted together. The scene was dissolving; the virtual world was changing. He looked down at the frightened girl clutching his arm and repressed a sigh. He really could not do with another girl gripping onto him. He had enough of them back home. However for the moment he did not shake her off; her expression of confusion and fear seemed to get the better of him. As the new scenery emerged however and they were on solid ground Kaiba pulled his arm away from a now very self-conscious Tea. Her question completely forgotten and embarrassment apparent on her face.

She did not remain embarrassed for long as she took in the scene around them. This time they were standing in a field with a picnic table set in the middle. That was the only object as far as the eye can see. Suddenly a voice boomed around them. Tea shrieked in surprise, clutching onto Kaiba once again. This was too much contact between them; he huffed and pushed her away, concentrating on the voice.

"Welcome Seto Kaiba. I trust you are enjoying yourself?"

"Who are you? And what do you want?"

"Ooooh, straight to business. I like that about you Seto; you take no prisoners." The effeminate male voice continued. "Who I am is not important; what I want? Well that's simple. To ruin your life." The voice laughed and Kaiba growled. "But I want to play a fair game with you Kaiba. A roleplay game. You are in my virtual world. In this world there are several, shall we say, challenges that you, and your friend, will come across. You must face and rise victorious in these challenges in order to continue to the next level. When you reach the final level, you will meet me face to face and there we will decide who the winner is. But enough of that – you will not get that far anyway." The voice laughed and Tea saw a vein pulse in Kaiba's head.

"What have you done with my friends?" She shouted, balling her fists looking towards the blue sky.

"Don't worry Miss Gardener, your friends are safe and I am sure you will be seeing them very soon." The voice chuckled darkly but before Tea could say anything else it continued. "To make this computer game as realistic as possible, I have programmed into this world a few upgrades that will help you along the way. A few twists and turns there, a few helping hands there, and voila you have the perfect game. And you two are the main characters. I will be watching this game intently; please do not disappoint to entertain me."

"This is not some game. You can't do this!" Seto said, hands balled into fists.

"Oh Seto, but I can. And I already have. Besides, I've quite enjoyed it so far. And I think it's just going to get even better. So ta-ra, Seto. I won't be speaking to you anymore. I hope you have fun, and do remember if you come across anything you don't understand, well, feel free to ask the computer; it'll help you. Well just a little anyway." The voice chuckled again. "Adieu,"

"Wait-" Kaiba began but was cut off by the scene dissolving again, and they were transported to another location. This time they were transported into what looked to be like a forest. They were surrounded by trees, but the huge canopy above them let the light in. If Tea wasn't so angry, perhaps she would have found this mysterious glade beautiful; as it was she was in no fit state to admire the scenery. She turned to Kaiba; he looked like he was in exactly the same position as her. Angry.

"So are we just going to stand here or are we actually going to beat this game?" Tea snapped at Kaiba after he had remained motionless for about five minutes. This snapped Kaiba out of his trance and a smirk replaced his face.

"Oh no. We are not merely going to win this game. We are going to destroy it. Noone is going to stand between me and my company. And no one mocks me and gets away with it." Kaiba's voice lowered into the same menacing growl he had done the previous day, once again sending shivers up his companion's spine. For once, she was glad she was on Kaiba's team; she certainly did not want to face the wrath of this angry man. Kaiba swept away, his coat billowing out behind him as he strode further into the trees.

Tea rolled her eyes in annoyance. _Why can't he wait for me for once?_ She huffed to herself as she jogged to catch up with him. "Kaiba, we need to work together on this. If you are just going to prance off and leave me behind, you have another thing coming. I know we had our differences in the past but why don't we just ignore that and start afresh. We need both of us to win this game. There has to be a reason I was sent here, and it wasn't just left to you."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "Me, need _your_ help? No thanks. I am better off on my own."

Tea's eyes bulged in anger. "Alright, fine then, be like that. I was hoping you'd be better than this Kaiba, but I guess the other guys were right when they said you weren't worth our time." And with that she strode away from Kaiba, in the opposite direction, leaving him to contemplate what she just said.

 _Hmph, I'll show her._ He said as he strode away from where she had gone. _She offered a clean slate. Why would I want that? Those nerds did everything they could to stand in my way and she has to cheek to offer me a clean slate_. He scoffed. He began to think about all the things he hated about Tea Gardener. But to his surprise, he came up with nothing. The one thing that she did that Kaiba found annoying was the amount of time she spent talking about teamwork and friendship; two things he despised. But essentially, there was nothing wrong with Tea Gardener.

"BIG BROTHER!" A very familiar voice rang through the trees around Seto Kaiba making him freeze.

"BIG BROTHER!" It shouted again, bringing Kaiba out of his reverie.

"MOKUBA!" Kaiba replied without thinking. He began to run towards the source of the noise, before halting. _Wait, how can Mokuba be here? He wasn't a part of this game. I am here alone with Gardener. This is one of those challenges. It must be._ However, something was nagging in the back of his head. If it _was_ really Mokuba, he could not leave his brother alone in a place as dangerous as this. He knew he was renowned in the business world for his cruelty, his determination and his ambition, but one thing he sure was was very protective over his little brother. He began to run again. _I'm coming Mokuba. I'm coming._


	3. Chapter 2

Meanwhile, Tea had also heard the familiar voice ring through the trees. She also heard Kaiba's reply. Despite her caring nature, she was also stubborn. _He'll get to Mokuba before I could anyway._ She thought to herself. _Plus he'd probably be rude about me finding Mokuba or something._ She huffed to herself, balled her fists and walked faster away from Kaiba than she had before. _Incorrigible boy_. She thought as she moved away.

As she walked further from Kaiba, the trees began to become more and more dense, the light intensity decreasing with it. She caught sight of an object deep within the trees; it was shining unnaturally brightly, resting on the floor below the canopy of trees. She felt drawn to it. As she approached it, the object got dimmer, so she was able to focus on it properly. It was what looked to be like a ball, but with inscription written on it. It was completely out of place in the woods. Tea was not sure what it was, but remembered what the effeminate voice had told her and Kaiba earlier.

"Computer, what is this object?" She called out, feeling slightly foolish talking to empty air. However, this feeling was replaced with relief when she had her reply.

"Object identified. Sphere of life. This will free one of the three current inhabitants of the virtual world. They will wake up back in reality and be freed. There are no catches. This is a one-off. For use, hold the ball and push in the buttons on the side." The computer fell silent.

Tea grinned. She had found her way out of that place. She bent down and picked up the sphere, her fingers ready to set her free; but something stopped her. She sighed. Her conscience. She shook her head. She couldn't abandon Kaiba on his own, no matter how incorrigible he was. And she couldn't risk leaving Mokuba trapped in the virtual world. Out of the three of them, she knew he should be the one to be set free. She laughed ironically; Joey and Tristan would be yelling at her not to be so selfless. Yugi too probably. But she couldn't help it. She began to traipse back towards Kaiba and hopefully find Mokuba.

* * *

"MOKUBA!" Kaiba shouted, catching sight of a familiar block of black hair dancing through the trees. His side too was getting darker and darker as he ran further from Tea. The figure turned around and Mokuba turned to smile at him, before running towards him and jumping up for an embrace. The younger Kaiba began to bawl into Seto's shoulder, leaving him to comfort the little one.

"Seto, what's happening? Where are we?" Mokuba asked, sobbing, "All I remember is getting into the limo and then everything went black and then I was here in this place! Why are we here?"

"That is what I am trying to find out." Seto said coolly, though still trying to comfort his brother. He set Mokuba down on the floor and looked at him intently. _He doesn't look virtual, but that could be an illusion. He has Mokuba's short term memory, but still... My virtual characters could do that. There must be some way to tell he is real or not._

"Big brother, what are you doing?" Mokuba asked, dodging his brother's gaze. "What's wrong?"

"Mokuba, the day after your fifth birthday I took you to a café in Domino City, what was the name of the café?"

"What?"

"Answer the question Mokuba?"

"You didn't take me to a café. We went to the zoo. Seto I don't understand why you are doing this? What's wrong? It's me!" His eyes began to fill with tears again.

Seto sighed. If it was a virtual character appearing from his own memories and current thoughts, this Mokuba would have named the café he was thinking of at the time. So that wasn't it. Mokuba had answered the question right. But all that had accomplished was that this was not a projection of his own thoughts.

"Kaiba, Mokuba!" A familiar voice rang out over the trees. Kaiba rolled his eyes. Another irritation.

"Tea?! What are you doing here?" Mokuba asked, running towards her.

"I don't really know. I blanked out and found myself here with your brother." She shot a glance to that brother who gave her an icy stare. She shook her head and continued. "What about you?"

"Exactly the same. Except Seto doesn't seem to think it's me."

Seto appeared disgruntled for a second before regaining his composure. He hadn't expected his brother to see through his guise. Perhaps he should give him more credit.

"Kaiba, this is Mokuba. The computer told me there were three current users in the virtual world. And there are three of us. Mokuba is real. He isn't imaginary." Kaiba gave her a sideways glance before turning back to Mokuba who was giving him the puppy-dog eyes. Yes, this definitely was Mokuba. No computer programme could give such good puppy-dog eyes. Kaiba gave him a small smile before ruffling his hair.

"Sorry kiddo, had to be sure." Mokuba grinned at his brother and smiled at Tea who gave him a warm smile back.

"There was one more thing." Tea said, sorry to interrupt the two brothers. She had never even seen such a little smile from Kaiba. She was shocked. She hadn't thought him capable of smiling. But there again, she hadn't seen him and Mokuba interact. Maybe he smiled a lot with Mokuba around. The smile was so uncharacteristic that it completely lightened his face, giving him an almost handsome edge. Tea was jogged out of her reverie as the two boys blinked owlishly in front of her, waiting for her to continue.

"I found this." She revealed the glowing sphere from her backpack. "The computer said it was supposed to free someone from the virtual world, with no catches. But it is one use only." She paused before leaning down to Mokuba. "So it is yours Mokuba."

Seto's eyebrows shot up. What was this girl doing? Why was she being so... kind? Mokuba gave his brother an unsure look. "I don't want to leave you guys here, what am I going to do?"

"Mokuba, you need to escape. Leave me and ... Gardener here. You go and get us some help. You know the KaibaCorp drill don't you? You need to leave. Go now. I promise I will see you soon." Tea nodded encouragingly and let Mokuba know how to escape. He followed the instructions and the sphere got lighter and lighter. Soon Mokuba was engulfed in light, causing both the remaining two to shield their eyes. When the light had gone, Mokuba too had almost vanished, leaving the two alone.

Kaiba turned towards Tea and began to walk towards her; she could not interpret his expression so backed away from him, until she hit a tree. Kaiba put one hand on either side of the tree next to her head, making sure she couldn't escape.

"Why did you do that?" He demanded.

"What?" She said, trying to sound confident, though inside she was quivering in fear.

"Why did you not use the sphere to escape yourself?"

"Do I really have to answer that for you Kaiba?" Tea asked rhetorically, outraged. "Do you think I would just use that and leave you both alone? And what about Mokuba! I couldn't leave him stuck inside this place. In danger. I couldn't do that. So don't you try and be all high and mighty with me-"

Seto opened his mouth to say something. "Oh no you don't, you are going to hear me out. I do not know what your problem with me is Kaiba, but I am not some selfish person out for just personal gain. Whether you like it or not I do care for Mokuba, and even though it is very minimal, I care for you too. I can't just leave people I care about in danger, just because I am given an escape route. I won't run out on my friends. Ever. And that includes you Kaiba. I am your friend. Whether you like it or not." Tea was breathing heavily after this, panting. She looked into Kaiba's eyes and for a moment something inside them seemed to melt, and there was hesitation creeping into his features. Kaiba, hesitant, unsure? No, there was no way.

Seto meanwhile had been so taken aback out of her actions he needed to find out what she had to gain from them. When he had said that she cared about him and his brother something inside him tweaked, sending a flurry of emotions through him. She actually considered him a friend. Despite everything he had done and said to her? Maybe he had been being too harsh. The girl in front of him, who he noted looked quite scared of him, was not just a cheerleader. There was more to her. Much more.

He hesitated before removing his arms from by her head. She looked at him before brushing herself down.

"Thank you." He mumbled.

Tea's eyes widened. Had the great Seto Kaiba actually thanked her for something? Perhaps he wasn't quite the selfish arrogant idiot she had been giving him credit for...

They stood staring at each other for a while before the scene around them dissolved and they were transported to what looked to be the empty field again. However, standing in the middle of the field this time was a huge mansion. It looked to be designed in the same way as Pegasus's castle was; white exterior and the doors were just as extravagant, but it was somehow more creepy for Tea than it had been when she had approached Pegasus' castle with her friends.

"I guess we go in there then." Tea said to Kaiba, slightly unsure whether they were on talking terms.

"It seems that way." Kaiba replied in a calm voice. "Shall we?" He asked.

 _What? He's actually waiting for me to come with him. A change already! Wow, this is going well!_ Tea thought to herself.

"Err, sure." She replied brightly and they began to approach the door to the house.

Inside, Tea could see was a long corridor, spreading for quite some distance. The floor was wooden, with red furnishings lining the side and crimson throw rugs on the floor. The walls were white and there were chandeliers lining the inside of the corridors.

At the end of the corridor, Tea could make out a large room, and she could hear distant chatter. She recognised the laughing; surely it couldn't be. She beamed: it was her friends! They were here too! She began to run down the corridor towards the laughing.

"Gardener," Seto shouted behind her, "Wait, where are you going?"

Tea ignored him. She was going to be reunited with her friends.

As she got closer and closer to the room she began to hear their conversation. They were talking about, she stopped as she heard her name, followed by a lot of giggling. She crept closer and closer to the door and stood in the doorway. Sure enough, she heard the laughter of Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Duke, Serenity, Mai and Rebecca.

"And her hair," the voice of Mai choked through her laughing, "She really thinks that looks good on her? It is _so_ last century." The laughing happened again. Tea subconsciously reached to touch her hair.

"I feel sorry for her," She heard Yugi's high voice said. "She has no one else so she feels she has to tag along with us. I know she thinks I'm her best friend and all, but what do we actually have in common? I am good at Duel Monsters, she well... I have loving family, she..." There were roars of laughter from the boys.

"And that stupid friendship thing," A boy's Brooklyn voice piped up, Joey. "I couldn't get that permanent marker off for hours, no matter how I tried. Yeah it saved you Yugi but the number of times she bangs on about it. You would've thought she would've noticed by now that we don't like her!"

Tea was listening quietly to all of what had been said, she felt warm tears fall down her cheeks as she heard their hurtful words. Were these her friends?

"Guys?" she called out hesitantly,

The laughter stopped and there was some intense whispering. Tea caught many, how longs and did she hears but she waited patiently. Surely they had an explanation.

"Tea," Yugi said, his voice upbeat and clearly false, "We were just saying-"

"I heard everything." She said faintly, her eyes welling with tears. Yugi's face grew cold.

"Well then," Tristan said standing up from the settee as well. "Why are you still here?"

"You... you... meant those things?" Tea gulped back a sob. She had hoped everything they said, their cruel words that had hurt her far more than anything that had happened to her in the past.

"Of course we did." Duke said smoothly.

"So...so... we're not friends?" She whispered.

The group in front of her laughed, making Tea feel about an inch tall.

"No Tea." Yugi said, sobering up and looking at her coldly. "We aren't friends. We have never been friends. You are completely delusional if you thought we could _ever_ be friends."

That was enough. Tea turned from her friends and ran from the hall. Her eyes were filled with tears so she didn't see Kaiba blocking her path just outside the hall and crashed into him, almost falling over.

"Gardener-" Kaiba began hesitantly as he gripped her shoulders.

"Don't." Tea sobbed. She remembered the words, those hurtful words, that her friends had uttered. And their cold, empty expressions. In fact, she would only remember this afterwards, they had no irises. Their eyes were pure black. But they had spouted her biggest insecurities, her biggest fears. Even if they were not real, they had certainly unhinged her. She leaned into Kaiba, who still had his hands on her shoulders and wept.

* * *

"Gardener, wait. Where are you going?" He huffed in annoyance as he watched the girl bound towards the room at the end of the hallway. He had a bad feeling about leaving her on her own so he chased her, keeping a little way back. He watched her freeze and then creep slowly into the room. He crept forwards so he was almost right next to the entrance and listened to the conversation and watched Tea's expression change.

The things that her friends were saying. Kaiba gritted his teeth, if they had been talking about him he would have told them where to go and the way he treated them it may have been just; but to talk about Gardener like that? He looked at her face. She was standing still, tears trickling quickly down her cheeks. She looked... broken. He almost charged into the room to shout at the people who were being hurtful, but then Tea's voice croaked and the voices stopped.

Kaiba pricked his ears. The falsely happy voice of Yugi resonated around the hall and Kaiba sneered. Surely Gardener wasn't going to fall for that. He was right.

"I heard everything." She said, her voice sounding weak and broken. Even from outside the room, Kaiba felt the atmosphere go chilly, and he crept closer to the door, watching the scene take place. Immediately he could tell that her friends weren't themselves. Their eyes were empty, completely black. Kaiba gritted his teeth. Another challenge. But this one was unfair, it was cruel. He knew Gardener well enough to know that her friends meant the world to her. If they were taken away... he did not know how she would cope. As he pondered this he felt himself begin to feel sorry for the girl in front of him. It was cruel to do this to her; he felt, almost protective over the girl. _What is going on with me?_ He asked himself with incredulity. Before he could ask himself any more questions he felt someone hurtle into him and instinctively grabbed their shoulders to steady their fall. It was her.

"Gardener..." He said hesitantly, unsure of what to do or say. He looked at her face, empty, every bit of life disappeared. She looked tortured.

"Don't." the girl in front of him said and leaned towards him, resting her face on his chest and crying. Kaiba was so surprised at this he didn't immediately throw her off. Instead, instinctively he gently wrapped his arms around her small frame and before he knew it, pulled her closer to him. Letting her press her entire weight into him. A wave of emotion passed through him as he caressed her back. He knew how to comfort his little brother. He had gotten into plenty of scrapes and had often cried in Seto's arms, but as he moved his fingers lightly over her back he realised he felt nothing like he had done when comforting Mokuba. This emotion was new, strange, different. It scared him. What was the girl in front of him doing to him? This realisation scared him and he drew away, clearing his throat.

"We should find somewhere to rest." He said gruffly. He didn't catch Tea's eye but he could feel her gaze boring on him. It made him colour under her gaze and he wished she would look somewhere else.

"Yes." Her voice replied weakly and they began to walk down the corridor.

* * *

Tea wept into Kaiba's shirt, not caring if the CEO would complain about it, nor if he threw her away almost immediately. She needed to cry and if Kaiba had any heart he would let her. Surprisingly, he did, and what was even more surprising was that she felt his arms snake around her back. For some reason, she felt safe in his arms. Protected from the words of her friends, and above all comforted. She shivered involuntarily as he traced her back with his fingers, the shiver taking her off guard and distracting her from the unpleasant thoughts of her friends. What was Kaiba doing? But before she could think more of it, she felt him drawing away and clearing his throat.

She looked up at him, trying to catch his eye, but he seemed determined not to catch hers. She wondered what had made him change his attitude. Was Kaiba's iciness melting? A warm sensation flooded through her, the same sensation as when she had seen Kaiba smile. Did she... did she like Kaiba? The sensation was weird, but not abhorrent. It was interesting, new... she replied an absent yes to Kaiba's suggestion about finding somewhere to sleep. And followed him down the corridor.


	4. Chapter 3

They soon found a place to sleep. A double bed with plush looking pillows and duvet stood in the centre of a room off the corridor. Kaiba sighed internally, knowing he would be spending an uncomfortable night on the floor, before entering the room followed closely by Tea.

"I'll keep watch." Kaiba said in a tired voice, "You should get some sleep." He closed the door behind them and began and sat himself down by the door. Tea again felt the warm sensation as she watched him settle himself down onto the cold wooden floor. Seto Kaiba was being nice now. Nice to her. She almost laughed at the dumbstruck expressions Joey and Tristan would have if they were there.

"Hey Kaiba, catch." She said before promptly throwing most of the pillows over to him on the floor. Kaiba gratefully caught them, nodding to Tea in thanks. They were silent for awhile as they both settled into their respective positions. After a while, Tea cleared her throat,

"Kaiba, thank you. For, you know, what you did just now. I really appre-"

Kaiba chuckled sardonically, "Don't get all soppy on me now Gardener, I don't need to get any wetter than I already am." Tea smiled at his sarcastic comment. This sounded more like the Kaiba she knew. She paused, deciding on something, before continuing sleepily.

"It's Tea."

"What?" Kaiba said, with no sarcasm in his voice.

"I said, call me Tea. It seems we may be here for a while and I'd rather you call me by my first name. My friends always do." Kaiba was taken aback. Tea told him earlier that she considered him a friend. But this was another step and felt… different. But before he could order his thoughts and reply, Tea was wishing him a sleepy goodnight.

Kaiba looked over to the figure of Tea, the light just enough to make out her face. "Goodnight... Tea." Kaiba said hesitantly. He saw the sides of her mouth turn upwards into a small smile before she relaxed completely and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Kaiba had brief spells of sleep during the night. But he mainly stayed awake, watching Tea sleep and thinking. In the past he had never seen anything phase Gardener – no, Tea – no matter how many insults he threw her way. But what Yugi - the virtual world version of him anyway - had said about her family and her friends had really affected her. There was much more to this girl than her smiling, happy exterior.

And then there was the aftermath. The feeling of her pressing against his body. The way her back had felt as he had caressed it. These thoughts sent a warm, tingling feeling run through his body. He liked the way she had felt. He wanted to touch her again. He cast his eye over the sleeping form of Tea.

 _Wait._ He stopped himself suddenly and shook himself. His scowl replaced his neutral expression and he crossed his arms tightly over his chest. _What the hell is she doing to me?_ He asked himself. _I will not - cannot - let her affect me. I can't trust anyone. I rely on myself and only myself. My only objective is to escape from this place. I don't need unnecessary complications._

* * *

When Tea woke up all the events of the previous day came back to her. The confusion, the sadness and the strange feeling about a particular boy... she looked around the room. There Kaiba was lying down on the pillows, his eyes open and fixed on her. She coloured and looked away.

"I was wondering when you'd wake up." Kaiba said, sounding grumpy. "We need to get moving."

Tea nodded and got out of the bed, shaking her hair out of her eyes. She reached for the hair tie she always kept attached to her belt and tied her hair up. It was getting too long, she had to admit. Her fringe had always bothered her but now with it being greasy as she had not washed it the previous night, it was particularly annoying. Thinking about her hair, her mind drifted to her friends and what they had said the previous night.

"We need to go now Gardener." The use of her surname jogged Tea from her reverie. She frowned and scowled at Kaiba.

"I thought you were going to call me Tea from now on." She said accusingly.

Kaiba scowled. "Well it's going to take me a lot of time to get over the habit. Sorry if that bothers you." He added sarcastically, not meaning to sound as harsh as he did.

"Fine." Tea said shortly. Her face was red with anger, her sadness forgotten for the moment. "Are we going then?"

"After you," Kaiba replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

The two exited the room and looked down the corridor. It looked the same as it did the previous day except now the castle was flooded with light, making it feel a lot less oppressive. They walked in silence down the corridor, both thinking about what they should do next.

"I think we should split up." Kaiba suddenly announced as they approached a cross road in the castle.

"Kaiba..." Tea began.

"I'm going down here." He gestured to the passage leading to the left. "You follow the path to the right. We will meet back here in exactly one hour. You have a watch don't you?" He only gave her the chance to nod before continuing. "If we don't meet back here at that time we'll know something is wrong and then we can find each other."

"Kaiba I really don't think this is a good idea..."

"Look Gardener," Kaiba said impatiently ignoring her balling of her fists at the sound of her surname. "I work best on my own, if you hadn't noticed. I got my company, my life and everything by relying on myself and only myself and that is how I intend to continue." He looked at her. She looked angry, but there was something else, hurt, in her eyes.

"Then why did you choose me on the computer?" Tea asked. This had been bothering her since Kaiba had told her. "You know I work as a team, you have seen I don't like to be on my own. Surely you wouldn't have been stupid enough..."

The mention of him being stupid made a vein pulse in his head and he put his cold eyes on Tea. She was trying to look brave as the tall boy towered over her, but her hands were shaking.

"Do you really think I would have chosen you out of all my options?" He sneered, "I was going to choose Yugi. But my time run out and that damn computer randomly chose you. And I've been suffering for my hesitation ever since." He regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth, but he pressed his lips together in a thin line to prevent him apologising and diverted his eyes from the girl in front of him.

Despite a voice in his head screaming telling him to be reasonable and apologise, he swept away from Tea and strode away down the corridor to the left. He half expected to hear her footsteps following him, to hear her voice shouting at him to be reasonable or to call him some stupid name. But it didn't come. All he heard was the voice inside his head screaming at him in distress.

* * *

A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry for the late post - been away for 2 weeks. What do you think of the story so far? I'd love to know your thoughts, so please R&R and let me know what you think.

PS I kept forgetting to write an author's note at the end of the chapters before I posted them - hence why you haven't heard from me before! Hopefully I've broken the habit...


	5. Chapter 4

"Look Gardener." At the sound of her surname, Tea balled her fists. She felt like Kaiba was mocking her, by continually, stubbornly using her surname despite her specific request to call her Tea. She had thought the previous days' events had brought them closer. But obviously it hadn't.

She barely listened to Kaiba talk about his independence. She had truly believed they had become friends. She had thought perhaps that he liked her. But she had been wrong. He never had and it seemed he never will.

On a sudden impulse she blurted out, asking why he had chose her at the very beginning. Kaiba knew, if only just a little, what she would be like as a companion. So if he was so 'independent' why did he choose her, the ultimate teamplayer.

"Do you really think I would have chosen you at of all my options? I was going to choose Yugi. But my time run out and that damn computer randomly chose you. And I've been suffering for my hesitation ever since." The tone, his words knocked the wind out of her. There it was. He hadn't wanted her at all. What had she been thinking? Kaiba like her? She almost laughed out loud at her stupidity.

Interrupting her inner monologue she became aware of heavy footfalls and looked up to see Kaiba walking away from her. She hated being alone and knew that being alone wasn't a good idea for either of them. The stubborn part of herself chipped in, telling her to grow up. She had to become more like Kaiba: strong, independent, care less. _Who needs a stuck up jerk like him anyway?_ She thought watching Kaiba walk further and further away. With this she turned away from the retreating boy and began to walk down the unknown corridor.

* * *

Walking down the corridor Tea began to notice voices whispering from behind the doors that lined the corridor. The more she paid attention to them, the more frightened she felt. This was seriously spooky. This, together with the ceilings appearing higher and the corridor narrower than before, was making her feel extremely uneasy. She slowly increased her walking speed with the whisperings becoming more and more intense. She had almost broken into a run when she heard her name being whispered behind one of the doors. She abruptly came to a halt and reached for the doorknob, curious despite her uneasiness.

As she cautiously opened the door she heard a loud cheer and a spotlight suddenly trained on her. The room was huge and she recognised it as a stage, the cheering originating from a huge audience she could just make out. She looked down at the floor, almost blinded by the light, and her lack of apparel caught her eye – she was no longer wearing her everyday clothes but a leotard and leg warmers; her dancewear. A voice sounded startling her and quietening the crowd.

"And now, the auditionee you've all been waiting for, the one, the only Tea Gardener!" The cheers erupted again, even louder than before.

Tea hesitated, something in her mind was telling her this wasn't real. But a larger part of her was saying that this was very important. However, both sides of her agreed that it was important that she danced.

The crowd fell silent as the music began. Tea sighed. It was Swan Lake. She had been practising this routine for so long. It was going to be her audition piece for Julliard Academy. This would be an excellent trial run. She waited until the introduction was finished then tiptoed on point gracefully across the stage. Ignoring the whoops of the crowd she began to dance, remembering the routine perfectly and letting each movement flow freely and fluidly into the next. She heard noon send noticed nothing, giving herself completely to the music. She pirouetted, reached and spun with ease.

The music swelled, the climax and finale of the piece almost at hand. Tea took a deep breath – this was the part of her routine that she had practiced the most. Suddenly the music stopped and Tea teetered on a move, steadying herself after the sudden shock. She looked around, confused. The crowd had started to mutter

The music swelled to a climax and Tea prepared herself for her finale; she had worked long and hard at this particular section, just as she was about to finish the music stopped and a voice on a microphone said in a bored voice.

"We have seen enough, thank you. Move forward to the centre of the stage please." Tea stopped immediately and looked around confused. She was covered in sweat and panting from the exertion of her dance. It was obvious that she was about to enter her final sequence – why had they stopped her? Not wanting to be impertinent, she gracefully stepped to the centre stage and looked placidly toward the judges' desk which was situated in the centre of the crowd.

The original microphoned voice began once again, "Thank you Tea for that-" he paused, "performance." Tea knitted her eyebrows together. She had thought it had gone well, perfectly even. But the tone and words of the person suggested they had thought otherwise.

"Over to you Julliard judges, has Tea impressed you enough? Will you accept her into your dance school?" Tea's breath caught in her throat. This was her audition? She looked back at the judges her eyes wide as they talked quietly. Whispers carried through the auditorium form the crowd. Tea felt self-conscious standing in the spotlight doing nothing. She chewed nervously at her lip, hoping, praying that the judges gave a favourable outcome.

A tap on the microphone indicated that the judges were ready. The judge's voice that had stopped her rang out through the auditorium. "We have discussed and have come to a unanimous decision." Tea held her breath, crossing her fingers behind her back. Her dreams were about to ...

"And we do not want you." The voice continued unaffected by Tea's sudden trembling. "You are sloppy, uneducated and unbalanced. Julliard only accepts the best. And you Miss Gardener are most certainly not the best. You are dismissed."

Tears streamed down her cheeks as Tea left the stage. She had failed. She hadn't got into Julliard. Her one and only dream had been shattered. As soon as she had reached the curtains she put her head down and ran, not caring in which direction. She brushed past people standing in the wings, she heard some of them laugh but she didn't stop. She had to escape.

After a while she came to notice there were no longer people on either side of her. She slowed down to a halt and looked in front of her. She jumped backwards in surprise; a lady was standing a few feet in front of her. Her mother.

"Mummy…?" Tea asked hesitantly before running at her mother, throwing her arms around her and sobbing hard into her chest. "I didn't get into Julliard." She managed to hiccup out. Meanwhile Tea's mother had remained passive, standing still, not even bothering to hug her back. Her first flicker of movement was to untangle Tea's grip and push her gently back.

Tea looked into her mother's face and saw her wearing a grim expression.

"Your father is waiting for you." She said, "You must go and see him." She gestured to a door that looked like the entrance to a dressing room. A spark of fear lighted within Tea. She had not seen her father in almost a month but he still struck fear into her heart. Flashbacks of what had happened to her in the past by his hand flitted through her brain and she thought about fleeing, dreading what he would do to her now.

She heard his cold voice say her name, ordering her to go to him. She threw one wild look to her mother who did not return her gaze. She would have to go to her father. She took a deep breath and trying to steady her racing heart she entered the room. She had been right about it being a dressing room. There were clothes rails on which hung many different costumes. One of the walls was lined with mirrors and dressing tables, with bulbs framing the mirrors, like Tea had seen in the old movies. She looked around, she couldn't see her father anywhere. She was just going to call out for him when she heard his deep voice and shivered.

"So it appears that you aren't as good as dancing as you thought you were." He said darkly from behind her. She turned around quickly but not before she felt something make contact with her head and she fell backwards. She knew this was going to happen. She scrambled away from her father as he walked towards her with his muscles flexing. "Get up you pathetic creature," He said spitting at her. She obeyed, not wanting to get kicked. "No daughter of mine should crawl like some beggar. You disgust me." He turned her around, grabbing her shoulders tightly pushing her further into the room. She let out a cry as she felt his nails dig into her delicate shoulder skin. He chuckled, but let go slightly and just pushed her with his hand. Eventually they walked into a more open space and her father through Tea to the ground and she hit her head hard on the ground.

Groaning she looked around. There seemed to be more than one of her father and they all had the same sadistic grin that plagued her nightmares. She backed away but could not move further before he kicked her in the stomach. She flipped over onto her front, clutching her stomach.

"Don't you see Tea, this is all your fault." He said, "You deserve to be in pain for what you have done. You have disappointed me and your mother. Again." At this point Tea had began to cough, blood coating the floor in front of her. "Look at me when I'm talking to you." He stopped down and wrenched her hair, pulling her neck back to face him. Tea whimpered. "But don't worry, I am going to put your mother and I out of our misery. You have disappointed us for the last time. Soon we won't have a daughter to be disappointed by." He pulled Tea to her feet by her hair and punched her in the face laughing as she feel to the ground, once again hitting her head.

Tea's world flickered and she knew she was going to die. She was used to death threats, but this time it was different, her father had a wicked gleam in his eye and this time she knew he was serious. She helplessly tried to roll into a ball to cover her vital organs but her arms and legs didn't seem to want to move. Her father laughed mercilessly and Tea knew it was over. But before her world completely blacked out she heard a deep voice which she at once recognised.

"Leave her alone." The voice said, his voice ringing with power.

The shadow hovering over her appeared to retreat slightly before laughing. "And what are you going to do about it, wise guy? What is she to you?"

"She is my friend. Now leave her alone or face the consequences." The voice said menacingly. That voice. The voice Tea knew so well, the voice of… _Yami_...


	6. Chapter 5

The next time she opened her eyes and looked around she saw someone bent down at her side, looking at her concerned. It took a while for Tea to focus on the face in front of her but when she saw who it was through the blur, she gasped and pulled herself away.

"Tea stop, it's me." Yami's voice said in a worried tone. That made Tea pause. She looked at Yami. He certainly had helped her, but was it a trick? She looked into his crimson eyes, looking for something that would tell her it was actually her friends. _Wait a moment,_ she thought, _Crimson eyes?_ She looked into his eyes. Sure enough, they were not the black empty ones she had seen in her other friends. She looked into his face. He looked above all worried. He crept closer to her and put an arm around her allowing her to sit up.

"Shhh, it's okay." He said rocking her gently from side to side. Then Tea realised she had been shaking.

"I didn't get in." She said dejectedly, her voice shaking. "And my father said-"

"Tea it's not real. Remember you are trapped in a virtual world. These are projections, they aren't real. You never had an audition. I have sent your father's avatar to the shadow realm. You won't see him again."

"I...I..." Tea stuttered, realising her mistake. She had actually begun to think that this was all real. Then she remembered something and became suspicious. Drawing away from Yami she looked at him. "So how come you are hear? Where is Yugi?" Yami looked as confused as she was.

"I think," He said after a long pause, "Whatever happened to us separated our souls. He was abducted whereas I was left free to roam the virtual world. I have to say you and Kaiba have been hard to keep up with. I kept trying to find you but everywhere I went I saw things and people and events that I didn't want. I finally found you as you entered the room, but it took me this long to find out where you went afterward. This place plays tricks on you!"

Tea really wanted to believe Yami. After all he was one of her best friends, perhaps she even more. She nodded. "I guess that makes sense..." she said hesitantly. "We need to go find Kaiba then," She stood up, then realising what she had just done she looked down at herself. Blood stained her clothes but then she realised her wounds were healed. She swung round to look at Yami. "You... you healed me?" She asked awestruck.

He shrugged bashfully. "It is one of my other powers."

Tea smiled at him, "Thank you, for everything Yami. You saved my life." She reached over and gave him a hug. As she did so, she felt him stiffen but soon he relaxed and she felt his arms extend around her waist and began to ran over her back tentatively.

"I couldn't forgive myself if anything happened to you Tea." He murmured into her hair. Tea was glad he couldn't see her face she guessed she was red as a beetroot. They hugged for longer than normal, Tea glad for the comfort, before she gently pulled away.

"We should really go and find Kaiba," she said looking down at her watch, remembering what he had said. "I said I would meet him half an hour ago, he will... or he should... or he might... be looking for me." She hesitated before each reiteration. She wasn't even sure whether Kaiba would bother meeting up with her again after all that he said..

Yami looked grim but he gave a small nod before the two left the room. As he did so, he grabbed her hand. Tea blushed and looked over at Yami, he was looking at her assessing her reaction. She gave him a small smile and the two began to leave the room.

"Tea, TEA!" They heard a loud voice call, sounding frantic as they were leaving the room.

The owner of the voice came into view, a shocked expression apparent on his face.

"Yugi?" Kaiba said incredulously.

* * *

A/N: And another chapter in the space of two days! Not too shabby (if I do say so myself). This one's a little shorter than usual but you'll find out what happened to Seto in the next chapter. What will happen now Yami has been introduced into the mix? Let me know what you feel about the last 2 chapters. R&R :)


	7. Chapter 6

Kaiba strode down the corridor, not giving the girl behind him a second glance. However, the further away he went, the weaker his resolve became. His strode became a walk, the walk an amble and the amble a halt. It wasn't wise for them to split up. 'What was I thinking?' he asked himself, turning on the spot. He expected to see Tea standing there, waiting for him to come back. But she was nowhere to be seen.

A nervous feeling began to bubble in the pit of his stomach. She's bound to get herself into trouble. She's like Mokuba. If something happens to her, I'll-'

He paused. What would he do if Tea got hurt? He closed his eyes and allowed himself to think about her for a moment. She, Yugi's cheerleader, was annoying. She was loud, interfering, obnoxious, warm, kind, beautiful… His eyes shot open, a sudden realisation exploding within him.

"I like Tea Gardener" he said out loud. His words sent a warm tingling sensation run through his body.

'I like her… a lot.' He thought to himself. He thought about their past exchanges, their arguments. She was really the only person that stood up to him and his difficult ways. He smirked at the memory of these exchanges, chuckling at the insults they had in the past exchanged. 'No matter what she said I always came back for more.' He thought to himself as he began to walk down the corridor to find his newfound love interest. 'Now I realise why.'

However, before he advanced very far he heard a familiar voice calling his name from one of the doors along the corridor on his left. The disembodied voice still sent waves of anger through him even though he knew that the speaker should be – was – dead. It was his stepfather – Gozaburo Kaiba. Even though he knew this was a trick, a test, set by the perverted creator of this Virtual World he stormed through the door.

His stepfather was sitting in a large armchair, apparently waiting for him.

"Ah, there you are, I was beginning to get impatient."

"What do you want? You're supposed to be dead." He growled.

Gozaburo Kaiba chuckled darkly. "Sit down boy, we need to talk."

"I'd rather stand." Kaiba replied coldly.

"As you wish," Gozaburo said in a voice that sounded like he was trying to please a small child. This made Seto's anger reach new heights but he held his tongue and waited for Gozaburo to continue. He wasn't going to let the old man goad him into anything.

"Well Seto, I heard the company is going down the drain since I left it to you." Gozaburo said. "Such a pity. Gaming... What could have possessed you to think that-?"

"What do you want Gozaburo?" Kaiba interjected.

"Why, to talk to my stepson of course!" Gozaburo laughed,

Seto let out a dry laugh. "Oh really?" He said, "Well if it's just that then I'll be leaving, I have other more important and pressing things to do."

"Like save that girl?" Seto froze. "Yes I have seen her, she's annoying isn't she. And her looks." He clicked his tongue. "Do you really want to save her? Is she worth it?" A volcano of anger began to bubble and boil in Seto.

"Leave her out of this." Gozaburo laughed.

"My, my, the great Seto Kaiba going all soft and mushy over a girl. Who would have thought it? And such a pity you could have gone for so many other beautiful girls and you chose," Gozaburo chuckled.

Kaiba made an unintelligible snarl and stalked away from the man in front.

"Don't turn your back to me, boy" Gozaburo commanded with menace.

Seto turned back to his stepfather and sneered. "You don't scare me anymore." With that he exited the room, ignoring the insults and shouts from his stepfather behind him. He looked at his watch and was surprised when the allotted hour he had given Tea to meet him back at the crossroads was up already.

'It can't be an hour already, surely?!' He thought to himself. He huffed as he realised what might be going on. 'Another way to mess with us. When I find out who's behind all this…' he thought darkly as he walked back the corridor to where he had left Tea standing.

5 minutes had elapsed (he had counted to three hundred instead of relying on his watch) and there had been no sign of Tea. He gritted his teeth. He was an impatient man. Inaction would not do. He started to walk down the corridor to look for the girl who he couldn't help but worry about.

* * *

"Gardener." He shouted loudly, down the corridor, "Gardener, where are you?" He continued to walk down the corridor, every passing second making him more agitated. He had a feeling something was going really wrong and once again cursed himself for deciding they should split up. He froze when he heard a voice behind one of the doors along the corridor. It was a whimper. A whimper that sounded very much like Tea. His blood ran cold. As he listened, the whimper was replaced by the taunting voice of a man.

"Don't you see Tea, this is all your fault. You deserve to be in pain for what you have done. You have disappointed me and your mother. You never impressed us. You have been a disappointment from start to well now."

A dawn of realisation struck Kaiba, pulling him from his frozen state. This was what the avatar of Yugi had meant the previous day. Tea's father had been hurting her. A surge of anger bubbled through Kaiba, stronger than anything he had felt before. He ran towards the door, almost pulling it off its hinges.

"TEA." He shouted loudly as he ran into the darkness. He could no longer hear Tea's father. He couldn't see anyone or anything – he was shrouded in darkness. All he could do was continue to shout Tea's name, hoping she'd respond, that she'd be alright, that he'd reach her in time.

A light almost blinded him as it popped into existence. He ran towards it clumsily, shielding his eyes with his arm.

"TEA," He shouted again as he entered the room, frantically removing his arm from his eyes and searching for her. He followed the trail of knocked over objects. He caught sight of something glistening red on the floor. He bent down and realised to his horror that this was blood.

"TEA!" He roared even louder than before as his hands began to shake with anxiety. He ran around a corner only to see two figures leaving a room about 10 metres away. One of them, to Kaiba's relief, was Tea. But the other… the other…

"Yugi?" Kaiba asked, incredulously. The last time he had seen Yugi was when he had been verbally abusing Tea the previous day. Yet there they were now. Together. And holding hands?!

Tea noticed Kaiba's gaze boring at her and Yami's conjoined hands and she hastily untangled her fingers from Yami's and stepped slightly away from him.

"Kaiba, I'm glad you found us. I was beginning-"

"You have blood on your clothes." Kaiba stated plainly, interrupting her. He inwardly facepalmed. Of all the things he had wanted to say, stating the obvious had come out of his mouth first. Tea took a deep breath as if she was holding back her anger and then nodded.

"Yes, but Yam- I mean Yugi healed me after he made my father go away." Kaiba tightened his jaw and set it in a thin line.

"Yugi saved you." He said plainly, wishing his gaze could make someone disappear. Why was Yugi always there? Tea nodded and gave a grateful look to Yami who gave her a small smile to which Tea replied with a blush. A vein pulsed in Kaiba's head.

"Kaiba," Yami greeted him. As Kaiba expected, his voice was deeper than Yugi's normal voice. He had once been told that there were two different people. Kaiba had always scoffed at such a ridiculous notion, but seeing this Yugi stand before him, and hearing Tea's slip up of name, indicated to him that perhaps, just perhaps, he may have been wrong.

"We must leave here and continue on our journey." Yami continued. Kaiba's irritation surged. _Our_ journey? It wasn't Yugi's journey, it was his own and Tea's. But before he could say anything, the world around them pixelated and blurred. A new challenge awaited.

* * *

A/N: I'm trying to write this story with both Tea and Seto's point of view about some of the key situations involving them both. I think that it gives a better rounding to the story. Sorry if that makes it confusing - sometimes I'll jump back in time when I'm giving the other person's perspective. I wanted to try this for this story - but if it doesn't work I won't incorporate it into my future stories. Let me know what you think about this and about the new chapter! R&R.


	8. Author's Note and Apology

Hey everyone.

I am SO SORRY for the delay. I've had some important exams over the last few months, then I managed to write a chapter (a good one as well) but my computer ran out of battery and I lost the whole thing :(. Wahhh. Then to top it all off, my long term boyfriend broke up with me THE DAY BEFORE VALENTINE'S DAY. Jerk. So yes, this is why you haven't had a new chapter for quite some time. But the good news is you'll have my undivided attention and it shouldn't be long until I update this story properly.

Don't give up on me!


	9. Chapter 7

A blast of warm putrid air hit the trio as their surroundings materialised. Unlike the previous worlds they had occupied, this one had no grass, no trees and no buildings. Instead dotted here and there upon an expanse of red sand were tall hills made of craggy rocks. However, what the new world lacked in scenery it gained in weather. Almost as soon as the trio had fully materialised they were buffeted by a high wind which brought sand and other debris into the air; in unison, the trio raised their hands over their eyes to shield their eyes.

"We need to get out of this wind." Yami shouted over the gale. He clumsily grabbed Tea's hand and began to lead her towards the nearest rock hill. Tea could just make out a small crevice embedded in the middle of the hill, which she (and she supposed Yami too) thought might offer some shelter. As such, she let Yami lead her towards the shelter, focussing on the destination ahead, forgetting the companion she was leaving behind.

* * *

Kaiba hadn't moved an inch except to shield his eyes from the flying sand. He scanned the area, analysing every feature of this new world, trying to look for something that would give him an edge. Once again, he wondered at the identity of the man who was holding him captive in this Virtual World. And what he possibly could want. Kaiba chuckled dryly. This man could want anything: money, power, influence. Seto had them all. But clearly this madman had done his research; he had known where to find Kaiba, and how to trick him into this damn situation. That made him dangerous. The man had also known about Kaiba's business, his contacts, his brother… Kaiba's heart dropped a little. He hadn't protected his brother the way he had wanted. He had always tried to shield Mokuba from the business world and his enemies within it. Mokuba was his vulnerability. But perhaps not his only vulnerability anymore...

Kaiba looked ahead of him towards Tea and Yugi. The pair had made progress whilst Kaiba had been occupied with his thoughts; they were now quite close to a rock hill which Kaiba assumed was their ultimate destination.

It would be easy for him to catch up. A few quick strides of his powerful legs and he would draw alongside them. _But then what?_ He frowned. Seto was no fool. Even before Yugi, or Yami, or whoever the damn boy was, had appeared in the Virtual World, he knew Tea felt a connection with him. They had always seemed close at school and during duelling competitions. But then, when Yugi duelled, he seemed almost to become someone else. He became more confident, took risks, and even sounded and looked slightly different. And equally, he thought, Tea would act differently around this duelling version of Yugi. She'd blush, she'd look at him more, she'd say different things. Memories flooded back through Kaiba, thinking of everything he noticed and noted, everything his analytical brain had picked up consciously and subconsciously. Yes there was something very different about this other Yugi. And yet…

Yami, as if sensing Kaiba's eyes boring into his back twisted his body around to see where Kaiba was. Seeing the boy frozen behind him, he grinned, and put his arm around his companion's narrow waist, pulling her closer to him.

That was it. The final straw. Kaiba turned his back on the pair and walked swiftly in the other direction. His sensible mind guiding him to areas of debris, picking up wood he could use to create a fire. Meanwhile, his heart pound painfully as he left Tea in the arms of another man.

* * *

Tea felt a shiver run up her spine as Yami rested his arm around her waist. This was what she had always hoped for. Dreamed about. Being in Yami's arms. And yet… Where was Kaiba? She stopped suddenly, realising he wasn't beside them and turned abruptly backwards. Not for the first time, she saw the tall brunette walking away from them. Away from her. She felt her heart drop but continued to watch the retreating boy. After a while she realised that Yami was still with her. She looked at him questioningly, knowing she would be unable to make her voice heard over the roaring wind.

Yami shrugged at her unspoken question. "He'll find us later I'm sure." Not entirely convinced, but knowing they needed to take shelter, Tea let herself be lead to the rock hill and began to climb towards the crevice. Always the gentleman, Yami waited, assisted and carried Tea as required and after a lot of painstaking effort, the two reached crevice just as a clap of thunder shattered the silence and rain began to fall.

Tea looked outside at the torrential storm that had just begun and bit her lip. Kaiba was out there. Alone. She couldn't see him anywhere through the gloom. What happened if he got hurt? What happened if he was attacked? They wouldn't know. _She_ wouldn't know. In her anxiety she had got to her feet and had begun moving towards the opening of the cave, but she felt a strong hand on her arm. She looked back to see Yami looking at her, his face etched with worry.

"Tea, you can't go back out there. It's dangerous." He said in his deep self-assured voice.

"But Kaiba-"

"Kaiba is a grown man Tea. He can look after himself." Tea's face obviously showed that she didn't believe him. "Trying to make your way down those rocks when they're wet is going to put you in danger." Yami said seriously. "Getting yourself hurt isn't going to help Kaiba, is it?" Tea shook her head. Yami's voice softened. "Come and sit over here," he said gently patting the space of ground next to him. Reluctantly Tea walked towards Yami and sat where he had indicated.

"Close your eyes," He said soothingly. "If Kaiba isn't back in an hour or two I'll go and look for him. But you should rest now."

Feeling more reassured Tea settled down next to Yami, leaning against the boulder behind them. As she closed her eyes she realised how mentally and physically exhausted she was. Before long she could feel the familiar blackness surrounding her, her mind starting to go blank. Sleep took her. Little did she know that as she fell deeper into her sleep, her neck relaxed, her head slipping slowly till it came to a halt on Yami's shoulder.

As he felt the pressure, he moved his head slightly, being careful not to wake the sleeping girl next to him. He gave a small smile and relaxed, his eyes focussed on the entrance to the cave, waiting. Waiting for the confrontation he knew would happen. Waiting for Kaiba to arrive.

"Annoying dweeb."

Kaiba muttered as he collected firewood.

"Idiot boy. Who does he think he is?" He growled lifting some broken trees from the ground and moodily stuffing them under his other arm. It was so obvious now to him that Tea had had feelings for Yugi or this apparent alter-ego; the way her eyebrows knitted in concern when he duelled, the way she shouted words of encouragement, the way she fiercely protected him from any insults that Kaiba sent his way. That hadn't bothered Kaiba at the time, but now seeing the colour rise in Tea's cheeks as Yugi smiled at her... even thinking about it made Kaiba's anger surge. He had opened up to this girl, intended to reveal more of himself than he had ever revealed to any girl in the past. And Yugi had gone and ruined it.

A clap of thunder sounded and rain began to beat on Kaiba's head. _Typical_ , he thought as he quickly gathered a few final logs before hurrying towards the rock mountain. The thought of Tea and Yugi alone in a cave made Kaiba climb up the wet rocks faster, barely noticing the scratches and slips he was suffering as he ascended.

He finally made it up to the crevice he assumed the pair had taken shelter in. Relieved he watched his feet carefully as he ascended the final few steps. When he looked up, he froze at the scene that greeted him. Firstly he saw Tea. She had fallen asleep; peace wiping away the events of the day that had just passed. The second and almost immediate subsequent observation was that her head was resting on Yugi's shoulder. A wave of anger rippled through Kaiba as he saw Yugi smirk at him. Not only that but Yugi's eyes were full of an emotion Kaiba had never seen before: malice and conceit.

An expression of glee flitted across Yugi's face as he saw the anger in Kaiba's face. He moved his arm from by his side to behind Tea, caressing her waist lightly. Forgetting his burden, Kaiba clenched his fists at his sides, dropping the logs that clattered to the ground. Tea was in too deep a slumber to wake up and instead snuggled closer into Yugi.

Kaiba took a few breaths to calm him down. The supercilious smirk of Yugi was getting to him. He set about creating a huge pile of logs which after a couple of attempts was soon a huge blazing fire. Kaiba sat opposite from the couple keeping his eyes fixed on the fire, trying not to look up. It bothered him more than he liked seeing the two together. As if reading his mind, Yami broke the silence.

"It bothers you, doesn't it, seeing her with me."

Kaiba did not reply but kept looking into the fire. Yami laughed coldly.

"Yes, yes I can see it does doesn't it." He continued with a smirk, "But I am the King of Games, I win everything. You should know this by now."

Kaiba's expression became more and more steely at Yami's words. He clenched his fists by his sides, trying not to rise to Yami's baiting.

"I win your pathetic competitions, I win the duels we have and I win the girl." This made Kaiba look up. "I win everything Kaiba. I have everything and you, well, you have nothing."

A sudden flashback interrupted Kaiba's thoughts. Something Tea had said when they had found Mokuba.

 _"The computer told me there were three current users in the virtual world"_

"Computer," Kaiba said quietly and impulsively, "How many current users are there in the virtual world?" Yami stopped smirking at his words.

The cool female voice replied, "There are two current users of the Virtual World."

The two males froze, looking at one another. Yami's face screwed up into a feral snarl.

"Computer." He spat out, "Don't obey any further instructions from either of the users of the Virtual World from now on." He turned to Kaiba in triumph. "Tea will never believe you. She'll just think you're jealous or its part of the stupid rivalry you have with me. She will pick me. It's _always_ me."

"We'll see about that." Kaiba said in a quiet yet deadly menacing voice. Kaiba swept away and settled himself as far away from the pair as possible whilst remaining under cover. He knew it was a risk sleeping in front of an enemy but he needed rest. And time to compose a plan. He was quite sure Yugi was right; it wouldn't be easy to convince Tea her friend wasn't real. Not after he had helped her when she was in trouble and not after Kaiba had been so cruel to her the previous day. _Why do I have to be so god damn mean to her all the time?_ Kaiba asked himself. In truth, he enjoyed their arguments; everyone was scared to talk back to him, except this girl. But it wasn't just that he enjoyed her feistiness. He felt somehow responsible for the girl; it was his fault that she had been swept up in this. The world had been cruel on Tea, and Kaiba had learnt some very personal things about her. No longer did he consider her as the bimbo head cheerleader; she was much, much more. And he wanted to keep learning. But, he inwardly groaned, he was going to have to warn her about her imposter of a best friend. And he could guarantee that that would not go down well. Nevertheless, it had to happen and Kaiba could only hope it would not damage their relationship beyond repair.

* * *

A/N: And I'm back! I hope this chapter is OK. I've spent so long looking and editting it I can see the wood through the trees anymore. R&R and please be nice!


	10. Chapter 8

Tea awoke the following morning feeling exhilarated but irritated. She had awoken in the middle of a really good dream. Even as she strained her mind to remember the intricacies, she could feel the dream slipping from her memory, leaving only the feeling of warmth juxtaposed with the colour of azure blue…

It took some time for Tea's sleep-muddled brain to remember where she was and what had happened. Suddenly, the events came back to her all at once and she sat bolt upright, all sleepiness gone, and urgently looked around the cave. To her relief, she found the object of her concerns; Kaiba was sitting against the opposite wall, clearly having found his way back safely. Fighting the wave of guilt that threatened to take her over she cast her eye on Yami sitting close to her. Very close. Quietly, moving carefully so that she wouldn't wake him up, Tea creeped across to the opposite side of the cave where her brown-haired companion lay.

Intrigued, she knelt down next to the sleeping man and studied his face carefully. It was as if his mask had been wiped away. Kaiba looked calm, serene, contented. Not the guarded, hostile boy she usually saw. On an impulse she reached out and brushed aside a strand of his brown hair that threatened to fall into his closed eyes. The edges of Kaiba's mouth, in response to her touch, upturned. A hint of a smile. A blush creeped over Tea's face at the thought of Kaiba waking up to her find her so close to him so, quietly, she stood up and turned back to Yami was sleeping. Or where he had been sleeping. She stifled a small yelp as she found her blonde friend standing right behind her. She hadn't heard him wake.

"Tea, I'm going to go to find us some food." He said regretfully, "It is only fair seeing as Kaiba found the firewood last night." Yami nodded towards Kaiba. Tea turned slightly to look towards Kaiba and found that he too was awake. Her blush deepened at the thought that Kaiba might have been awake when she was playing with his hair. His expression was cool and calculated. Ever the poker face. "But don't worry," Yami continued, drawing her attention back to him. "I won't be gone long." Yami said. He gave her a small smile then swept out of the cave without a second glance at Kaiba.

* * *

Kaiba's dreams had not been so pleasant. He dreamt of traitors and people chasing him. A particularly vivid dream had woken him in a cold sweat. Finding the cave lit but hearing no movement from the slumbering figures opposite him he had closed his eyes and started to come up with a plan of action for getting Tea alone and telling her about Yami. He hadn't got very far with his plan before hearing some soft footsteps walking towards him. Keeping his eyes closed and his face impassive he knew at once that it was Tea - not Yami - who was approaching him. Yet still he kept his eyes closed trying to keep his breathing even. _What does she think she's doing?_ He thought to himself as her smell - a mixture of strawberries and lilies - surrounded him. That smell… he'd smelt it before on the cheerleader and it surprised him at how good it was. He tried to keep his breathing steady as he felt her lean over him and touch his hair that had fallen into his eye. Her fingers on his skin felt soft and smooth and a warm feeling flooded through him. Involuntarily he felt his lips quirk and he realised he was smiling. _What the…_ he thought, but before he could think about what just happened he heard Yugi's voice and his eyes shot open.

Tea, I'm going to go to find us some food. It is only fair seeing as Kaiba found the firewood last night." Yami nodded towards Kaiba. The girl standing between them glanced back and Kaiba saw a faint blush on her cheeks that deepened when they made eye contact. _She looks attractive with that colour._ He caught himself thinking. _What the…_ he thought again. What was happening to him?! Luckily he had kept his face impassive and in any case the girl had turned back to Yami before his thought process had ended.

"I won't be gone long." Yami said before leaving the cave. Kaiba watched him go all the way out of the cave before sitting up and looking towards Tea. She too was watching Yugi leave with a small frown on her face. As if shaking herself she glanced at Kaiba once again before heading to the other side of the cave and moving some rocks awkwardly around the edges, as if trying to busy herself.

Kaiba stood up and walked to her side of the cave, standing behind her watching her tidy.

"We need to talk about Yugi, or whoever that pointy haired freak friend of yours that was." He almost winced at the harsh words leaving his mouth.

Tea bristled, wheeling around to face him. "He is not a freak." She said irritated that he was insulting her friends already. "And what do we need to talk about?" She asked harshly.

"He isn't who you think he is. He is another part of this game." Tea narrowed her eyes at the boy next to her, but he kept his gaze fixed on her eyes, his expression emotionless.

"How do you know?" She asked,

"What he said yesterday, he's here to-" _torment me_ he finished in his head, realising this was a challenge for both of them. But he wouldn't admit that to Tea.

"Go on." Tea said, encouraging Kaiba to continue,

"What does it matter?" Kaiba snapped.

"It matters because we are supposed to be working as a team." Tea snapped back suddenly angry, "Teams work together, there is no 'I' in team."

 _But there is a 'me'_ Kaiba thought to himself.. "I am not going to tell you Gardener so drop it. Besides remember all those other times you've been tricked since we've have been in this god forsaken place. Your friends, your father and now Yugi-"

"SETO KAIBA!" Tea shouted loudly, getting to her feet. "You are the most ignorant, arrogant, mean and conceited person I have ever met." She clenched her fists, "Why the HELL would you bring up MY MISTAKES again. Don't you think I feel foolish? Don't you think I feel stupid for falling for those tricks? If you KNEW how much those things have affected me, you would NEVER have said that." She sneered, and Kaiba flinched imperceptively - he'd never seen that expression on her face. "Or perhaps the great Seto Kaiba is jealous, that I now have one of my ACTUAL friends to rely on rather than on you."

It was remarkably easy to ignore her cruel words as Kaiba laughed coldly. "And why, may I ask should I be jealous?" He asked scornfully, "I should be grateful for Yugi for diverting your whining, snivelling attentions away from me. Perhaps you can cry all over him instead of me in the future."

Silence.

Time to watch a whole wealth of emotions cross Tea's face. The hurt, the anger, the crushing sadness.

"Seto Kaiba, you are a complete and utter bastard." She said quietly, turning her back on him.

"Tea, I-" Kaiba said, instantly regretting his cruel words, reaching to touch her shoulder.

"Don't you dare touch me." She wheeled around to face him, tears filling her eyes. He backed away from the raw emotions leaking from Tea, retreating to the other side of the cave, keeping his eyes on the girl in front of him. The girl he had unintentionally and perhaps irrevocably hurt. She would never believe him now. He had ruined everything. And with those thoughts piercing his brain, without caring if she saw, he buried his head in his hands.

* * *

"I am not going to tell you Gardener so drop it." Kaiba's voice rang loudly around the cave. Tea clenched her draw in irritation. Was he purposely using her last name to annoy her? Even after their scuffles she had been sincere about him calling her Tea. But no, stubborn Kaiba did what he pleased and it seemed to please him to irritate her by calling her by her last name. "Besides remember all those other times you've been tricked since we've have been in this god forsaken place. Your friends, your father and now Yugi-"

That was enough. "SETO KAIBA!" She shouted as loud as her voice could and whilst doing this, standing up to look down at the boy. It was as if a volcano was erupting from Tea as she spouted her next words with no hesitation "You are the most ignorant, arrogant, mean and conceited person I have ever met." She shuddered in her anger, _'_ Remember those other times you've been tricked. She clenched her fists at the remembered words, "Why the HELL would you bring up MY MISTAKES again. Don't you think I feel foolish? Don't you think I feel stupid for falling for those tricks? If you KNEW how much those things have affected me, you would NEVER have said that." She shook and then laughed, an absurd thought popping into her head "Or perhaps the great Seto Kaiba is jealous, that I now have one of my ACTUAL friends to rely on rather than on you." She shook a shaky breath as Kaiba laughed coldly and began to walk slowly towards her and she had to move backwards to keep away from him.

"And why, may I ask should I be jealous?" He asked scornfully, "I should be grateful for Yugi for diverting your whining, snivelling attentions away from me. Perhaps you can cry all over him instead of me in the future."

That was it. Any connection, any feelings that may or may not have been developing towards the CEO vanished. Were thrust to one side. How could he say those things afte reverything they'd been through. She felt tears prick in her eyes and for a sudden moment felt as though Kaiba was looking at her with a pained expression in his eyes, but almost as soon as she noticed it, the expression was gone.

"Seto Kaiba, you are a complete and utter bastard." She managed to utter quietly, her voice hoarse from her shouting and the emotion she had put into her previous speech.

"Tea, I-" she heard Kaiba say from behind her, feeling his fingers graze her shoulder. "Don't you dare touch me." She wheeled around to face him, tears of anger filling her eyes. She watched him flinch back, withdrawing his arm as if from an electric shock and walk away from her. She herself turned her back on him, finding a small nook behind a jutting rock and curled behind it, pulling her legs into her chest and rocking to and fro, oblivious to the fact that Kaiba was doing much the same.

* * *

It could have been minutes, hours or days before Tea felt a warm hand, graze her arm, and looked up to see Yami's concerned face. Although, for an instant, she could have sworn she had seen the boy in front of her smirk in the direction of Kaiba.

"Hey Tea, what's up? I got breakfast,"

"Oh, hi Yami." Tea smiled weakly, forgetting to use Yugi's name as she ordinarily would in front of people who didn't know his secret. She continued, trying to assume her normal chirpy persona. "That's great, I'm starving!"

* * *

After breakfast the trio set down the mountain and began to walk in a random direction. They had no idea which way to go but thought it best to keep moving rather than stay in one place. Perhaps they would find more special items that could help them through the virtual world? All Tea knew was that she didn't want to remain cooped up in a cave with Seto Kaiba.

Throughout the day, Tea noticed Yami kept bumping into her. She thought it was by accident the first few times, but then when it kept happening she looked at his face. He grinned back at her, and she hesitantly smiled back with less enthusiasm, shooting a glance over her shoulder to where she knew Kaiba was. Yami was acting very strangely; it was almost like he was _flirting_ with her. She pinched her nose in distaste. 'Flirting' and 'Yami' would never go together. But she couldn't think of any explanation. What puzzled her even further was when they sat down for rests Yami would always sit so close to her, their legs would brush and they were always in body contact. She began feeling slightly uncomfortable. Sure, it had been nice that Yami was giving her attention, but something just felt wrong about it all, really wrong. Further to this, as she spoke to Yami she would frequently see his eyes shooting towards Kaiba with some sort of gleam in his eyes. If Tea hadn't thought better she would have thought it was gloating, but _after all,_ she asked herself, _what on earth could he be gloating about?_

The end of the day drew closer and closer and the group decided it would be best if they rested in a sheltered location. As if by magic, and who knows, it may have been, a pile of rocks appeared near the horizon and they headed for that, assuming there would be some sort of sheltered place to sleep. Kaiba broke off from the other two muttering about collecting more firewood. Tea turned to watch Kaiba walk away and did not budge until Yami slinked his arm around her waist and guided her towards a cave he had found.

* * *

It was the first time Kaiba had left Tea alone with an imposter of one of her friends. He hadn't wanted to, not after the happenings of the day, but he couldn't see any other practical way forward. He had noticed Tea slowing and at their last rest stop she had looked exhausted; there was no way she could accompany him, even if she wanted to. And someone had to get firewood so they wouldn't freeze. He grumbled as he wrapped his coast around him even more. This new world was chillier than the others; too uncomfortable to just put up with. He imagined Tea in her short skirt and thin jacket. He would have to hurry. _And not just for that._ Kaiba thought, gritting his teeth.

Throughout the day he had watched every move that Yami made and every successive moment had made Kaiba's tension increase. Yami had been gloating, wordlessly, gloating over the fact that he had Tea's complete attention. _It's not as if I even care that much about her, it's just she's being fooled. This is one of her flaws. One of the very few..._ his brain added, but he shook his head. _I don't like seeing people being tricked. That's why I care. Nothing else. I just don't like it._ He kept repeating that over and over in his head, but somewhere deep down he knew this wasn't the case. It was this part that made him hurry to pick up the rest of the wood and hurry quickly back to the two, hoping he hadn't left them for too long.

* * *

As Kaiba walked away Tea felt fingers grasp her waist lightly and began to turn towards Yami, who looked slightly irritated.

"Come on," he said softly, no trace of the irritation in his voice. "You need to sit down."

He led her slowly into the cave they had spotted to begin with. They walked slowly, not talking. Tea suddenly felt self conscious, shifted under Yami's grip. However, instead of loosening his hold, he tightened it. She froze.

"Yami, can you-" but she was cut off with lips pressing onto hers. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw Yami pressing his body to hers, against the stone of the cave wall. His lips released her's, his eyes dancing with triumph.

"Yami. What the hell do you think you're doing?" Tea asked, struggling against him, but he was too strong for him to move.

"Oh come now Tea," He said in a silky voice. It was Yami's voice but there was something very off about it. Kaiba was right; this wasn't her friend. "We both know how you have always wanted me like this? Surely you knew that I must have noticed. And now you're wish is coming true."

"No-" Tea began but she was cut off as her lips were once again assaulted by Yami's, this time with more force. She felt his tongue probing at her lips, which she kept firmly shut. But his hands, his wandering hands, carressed her waist, her hips, her thighs and her - she baulked at the feeling of his fingers inside her shorts, reaching upwards…

"Please Tea," He said his voice silky and seductive whilst trying to keep her still "I've always liked you too. I've never been able to show you how I truly feel because I've been sharing Yugi's body. But now may be the only chance we can be together." Despite herself and her misgivings, Tea's body responded slightly to this. _He's right._ _This is probably my only chance. But now that it's happening. It feels wrong. This isn't love._

"No." She said firmly, again trying to push herself away from him. "I don't want this. Leave me alone." All she received was a menacing growl from Yami and he leant forward again, however as Tea prepared for another assault she heard an even more menacing voice reverberate around the cave.

"I suggest you leave her alone." Kaiba said standing at the entrance of the cave. Tea's heart gave a giant jolt as she saw him. He had dropped the firewood and was now looking at Yami with a stare that could probably freeze fire. Yami looked back at Tea and then at Kaiba. Seeing the girl's reaction he relaxed and stood away.

"You prefer him over me? I am shocked and hurt that you can change allegiance so quickly. Very well. I will leave." At this point Tea noticed that his eyes were not their usual colour; they were jet black. How she felt about this could wait as the imposter Yami left the cave, laughing, leaving the other two alone together. After the laughing had gone Tea slumped down the wall into a sitting position, her arms holding her knees to her chest. A rush of emotions hit her and she was silent for a while.

Kaiba watched frozen at the girl in front of him. Some part of him triggered and he walked towards her sinking against the wall as she had done. They sat in silence before Tea spoke, all animosity between them forgotten.

"I should have known it wasn't him. Everything that happened... It wasn't like him at all."

There was a pause before Kaiba said what he had been itching to say.

"I did try and warn you, but you are as stubborn as a-"

"I warn you Kaiba, don't push me." Tea warned, half-serious.

Another pause ensued. "Seto." Kaiba replied quietly.

"Excuse me?" Tea asked, unsure if she heard correctly.

"I said, call me Seto, Tea." He said, a ghost of a smile forming on his lips.

Tea bit her lip, trying to hold back the beam that was threatening to appear on her face. "Thank you, Seto." She reached out and took one of his free hands in hers and gave it a small squeeze. To her astonishment, after a short pause the once chilly CEO squeezed it in reply. They sat like that for the majority of the evening before Seto stood up to set the fire going, as he had noticed the girl's shivering. Soon they were both warm. They were no longer holding hands, but lay close to one other to share body heat.

"G'night Seto." Tea said sleepily.

"Goodnight Tea." He replied, the smile returning to his lips.

* * *

A/N: Aaaaand I'm back! I'm SO SORRY for the delay - I've been in hospital for the last 5 months (long story). Not sure how quickly the rest of this story will come out (I intend to add an extra level of the Virtual World in between the others I've already written). But hope this satisfies you for the moment! Plan on publishing a different fanfic I've been working on that may (or may not) be a Yu Gi Oh version of Pride and Prejudice... (just saying).

As ever, let me know what you think of this chapter - please be nice, I know I'm out of the game! xoxo


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